The Word on Spray Painting Hardware

I made a cryptic message at the end of the Front Door Reveal post about things not being as good as they seem. I'm here to inform you all that spray paint is not quite as awesome as you might think.

I've been contemplating spray painting hardware for some time. I asked my dad and husband their thoughts on the subject, and both advised against it. They both thought that spray painted items could not withstand daily use.

I continued to ruminate on the subject for several months, unconvinced.

Do you know how AWESOME it would be to paint all of the brassy-gold knobs in my house a lovely oil-rubbed bronze? Not only would it give my house an instant update, it would be super cheap. One can of my beloved spray paint is $7.28 at Home Depot. One interior door knob is $17.50. One set for our front door is a whopping $149.99. These are on the cheap side. This update gets expensive quick, fast, and in a hurry.

So you see why I was so enamored by the idea of spray paint?

I spent under $20 on the spray paint for the handles and hinges on those two doors, and I have plenty of paint left over for a few more.

I did read this post that said something silly about letting the paint cure for three days. Three days??? Who has that kind of time?

I didn't. So I put them on after 36 hours. Bad idea.

Time was not our only issue. We may have been able to pull it off had I tried to label which screws go with which hinges which go in which order on which door. :)

Let's just say I had only managed to separate the hardware by door: front vs. garage. I left my darling husband with six hinges, 24+ screws, and a sets of door knobs for each door and said, "Please put the doors back together, honey!"

Bad wife of the century.

We have one extra screw and two missing screws from two different hinges. The one screw left over does not fit into either said hole. Oops. Very bad wife.

Let's just say the doors didn't slide back on the hinges like you might think.

Dan is a beast though, and he did manage to get both doors back on (the second door took a little help from our wonderful neighbor, Ethan). It was a mighty hard, mighty sweaty job. No A/C, bum ankle, and a weakling wife who messed up all the screws. Sorry again, honey.

So the hinges got really scraped up. Yep, they look like death. I'm thinking of how I can fix those. I might give them a quick coat while still on the door. Just to gloss things over...

The dead bolt is the other issue. I didn't think about how much depth the paint was going to add. Now the paint is too thick so it scrapes every time you lock/unlock. Oops again.

Back to the drawing board.

For the time being, the doors are functional so lovely hardware will stay. We are debating what to do next.

I was very sad when I realized how bad this was turning out. However, it was an experiment in the first place. We (Dan included!) agreed to give the spray paint a go as a cheap fix before we purchase new hardware.

Hindsight says if I had labeled things better and let it cure for 3 days we might have been ok. Save the deadbolt, maybe not him.

From a distance, things look ok...